Homeland star Diego Klattenhoff on the future of television’s most contentious show

Diego Klattenhoff has been working on Homeland long enough to know not to take anything for granted.

“You think you might know the truth,” the man better known to fans of the series as straight-laced Major Mike Faber says, “but then wait a few months.”

Playing Faber, the Nova Scotia-born actor should know a thing or two about unexpected surprises. The closest thing Homeland has to a moral compass, Faber has spent the majority of the show’s two seasons playing good family friend to marine buddy Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), while secretly pining for Brody’s wife, Jessica — with whom he’d shacked up when the world assumed Brody had perished overseas.

However, with occasional terrorist-cum-American hero Brody coming to the realization that his best friend was a better father to his children than he ever was, as the yell-at-your-TV thriller wraps up its contentious second season this Sunday, Faber’s patience appears to have finally paid off.

Postmedia caught up with Klattenhoff to discuss Homeland’s critical reception, his character’s fate and what Sunday’s finale has in store.

We reconnect as former best friends and lovers (laughs). Whatever happened in Iraq stays in Iraq.

From the first season, Mike Faber’s role has always been to be the polar opposite of his consistently inconsistent best friend.

I think Mike’s motivation is pretty simple: I try to do the right thing in as many situations as possible. I think I’ll always be there for the family because I’m still in love with Jessica. There’s a certain code that comes with being a marine and I think that’s a good way of looking at it.

To be honest I have no idea who’s going to be coming back.

With that in mind, this season Mike began to see that Brody wasn’t exactly the American hero that both he and the government wanted him to believe. More specifically, he began digging into Brody’s involvement in the death of fellow marine turned terrorist Tom Walker. Do you think Mike is done with that search?

I don’t know to be honest. I think it was pretty much dead in the water when (C.I.A operative and Brody paramour) Carrie (Claire Danes) came to Mike and said, “Stand the f**k down. If you want to do right by the family this is the right thing to do.”

I’m not exactly sure how much Mr. Faber bought that but we’ll see in the future.

With the possible exception of Breaking Bad, Homeland is the most critically invested show on television today. Do keep up with recaps?

It’s inevitable to pick up some of that. You try to stay away from reviews as much as possible but you get texts and e-mail from people with references so there’s a couple that I’ve checked out.

I don’t feel a need to defend the show. I’m not blogging, I don’t have a Twitter. I just kind of sit back and watch. It’s one of those things where it’s going to play out the way it’s going to play out.

We know it’s not 24. That was a different type of show. It’s definitely easy to compare them. There are definitely some similarities but it’s definitely a different show. It’s one episode or a couple episodes but the show is going to go on for a little while longer so I’d rather save those judgments till the end.

That’s an interesting theory. The truth is you never know the truth. You think you might know but then wait a few months. It’s one of those things that keeps everyone right on the edge of their seat on the show. In six months when we come back that could be what we all believe but then it could be completely bogus and we’re all taken on a different path.

What can viewers expect for Season 3?

The writers are off right now hashing out the possibilities for Season 3 and you wouldn’t be able to get a straight answer out of them if you started water boarding or shocking them. They’re a pretty tight knit group.

I heard that Gansa and Gordon don’t have a fully conceptualized series plot, rewriting the script as the season goes along. Do you currently know the future of Mike Faber?

Not really, no. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure. This week you’re going to get assigned a new task and you didn’t see it coming or sometimes they give you a little heads up of something that may be happening in an a few episodes but I think quite a bit of it is on the fly.

As far as acting on the show, it’s pretty compelling stuff to get the script and everybody is trying to figure out what’s going on and who’s the mole? We’re in the dark almost as much as you guys are.

So can you confirm that Mike is not the mole?

I’m pretty sure Mike is not the mole.

But Mike’s coming back for sure?

I’ve heard that.

And Brody?

To be honest I have no idea who’s going to be coming back. It’s one of those things that you just cross your fingers and hopefully someone is going to give you a wink and a nod one of these days and let you know that you’re safe for next year.

Homeland Season 2 finale airs December 16 at at 10 pm ET on Super Channel.